Since about a year I’ve been getting into photography a bit more serious and I think I’ve been developing a love for candid portraits. Trying capturing people as they are in spontaneous moments, I guess that’s my thing a bit.

I take some shots at work every now and then to put on our cantina walls (i’m a social worker at a sort of day-centre).

A while ago I took a shot of a co-worker who didn’t like it as much at first (he’s the shy/modest type) but yesterday he told me he had many positive comments about the photo and asked me if he could hire me to shoot his family.

This was the very first time someone offered me to pay for a shoot! I’ll do the shoot but for free. A, I don’t consider myself good enough yet for paid gigs and B, I don’t want financial ties with someone at work.

But still, I was secretly pretty proud because of the offer itself. I guess it reflects my progress and I found that very cool and encouraging because this is the direction I’d like to go.

Just my small proud moment I wanted to share. :)

  • drinks_old_fashions@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    That’s a great feeling! Maybe offer to do it for free as a learning exercise for you. You can build a portfolio and if he doesn’t like the end results it won’t ruin the relationship with someone you probably see nearly everyday.

    • Kuierlat@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      That’s what I did. I told him I’d do because for me the reward is the gained experience and hopefully some shots to show off. That’s good enough for me at this point.

  • r0ka@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m glad for you! But for your sake, you may not want to do it for free. If the images turn out well and they share them around work, you could be setting up the expectation of others wanting the same treatment.

  • stilljustguessing@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Charge something, call it friends and family discount. If you don’t, consider whether you’re comfortable declining others if word gets around the office that you do family portraits for free and everybody wants one.

    • Kuierlat@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      We’re a small team (12 people) and I got promoted to supervisor/semi-manager not to long ago. I have a lot of restructuring to do also on the team-side of things because it’s kind of a mess. Things like these are good for bonding and positivity. That’s a win-win.

      I don’t want to be in a position where people owe me money in this scenario. The experience gained is good enough of a reward for me here.